NTT DoCoMo drops plans to release a Tizen device

Japan's largest carrier NTT DoCoMo, has dropped plans to release a smartphone running on the Tizen operating system.

DoCoMo says the stagnant Japanese market could not support a third smartphone OS. According to IDC, the country's smartphone market only grew 2.2 percent year-over-year for the six month period ended September 30th.

Samsung, the biggest backer of Tizen, will likely be disappointed with the decision. The company uses Android for all of its devices, but has been developing Tizen to hedge its bet on the single operating system and also to increase revenue of app sales by controlling the entire environment.

Additional backers of Tizen are Intel, Orange and Vodafone, each of which has remained relatively quiet about the OS.

The carrier says they will continue to work with the Tizen Association moving forward.